The shortlists for the 2019 BC Book Prizes have been announced, and Sunshine Coast-based publishers Harbour Publishing, Douglas & McIntyre, Nightwood Editions and Caitlin Press each have titles vying for the awards.
Douglas & McIntyre and Harbour Publishing have both been recognized in the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice category, which is awarded to the publisher and author of a book published in 2018 that is most successful in terms of public appeal, initiative, design, production and content. B.C. and Yukon booksellers determine the winner by ballot vote.
The titles in the running for this prestigious prize include One Eagle Soaring (Harbour Publishing) by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd. This beautifully illustrated children’s book for littlest readers explores counting and numbers with the help of West Coast animals. Also a finalist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award is Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age (Douglas & McIntyre), a deeply moving memoir by Darrel J. McLeod. Mamaskatch won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2018.
Gibsons publisher Nightwood Editions and Caitlin Press of Halfmoon Bay each has a short-listed book in the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize category – Our Familiar Hunger (Nightwood) by Laisha Rosnau and The Small Way (Caitlin) by Onjana Yawnghwe.
The BC Book Prizes, awarded in seven categories, annually celebrate the finest books published in the province. Recipients of the awards receive a cash prize of $2,000 and a certificate.
This year’s winners will be announced at the 35th Annual Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala on Saturday, May 11 at the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront in Vancouver. For more information about the prizes, go to www.bcbookprizes.ca.
– Submitted
